Cricket takes centre stage in weekend sports

Good evening, I’m James Adderley and we’re glad you could join us for this fresh package of Sports Monday. Sagitun of Independence has claimed the semi-pro football title, so we now turn out attention to the Harrison Parks Cricket Competition, which has been heating up inside the Belize Rural.

We’re four weeks into the season with Berlan, the team that is batting, sporting a 3-zip record, while the fielding team comes in after losing three straight. They are the Highway Bombers of Sandhill, and we’re just in time to see this batter get called out for the leg before the wicket.

Of course the Berlan team has ran up a triple digit score thanks to the performances of this batter who smacks for four more. Colin Young keeps the primetime performance going with yet another four. He would become the first player this season to strike for the century, finishing with an astonishing one hundred and thirteen runs batted in.

Of course even good things must come to an end and here the long distance journey for Colin Young ends when he fails to get this crunch out of the park to be easily caught out by the fielder. However, the Berlan offensive wasn’t through just yet–young Jermaine Baizar comes up with a four. Give him four more on the lash that reaches the touchline. He would finish with thirty-seven runs batted as Berlan totals all of two hundred and thirty runs in their turn at bat when they record their last out on this pop-up.

At intermission, the river provides an unbelievable cool spot, but we almost lost our cameraman to the very strong current.

But back to the cricket business and it quickly becomes apparent that the Highway Bombers of Sandhill would not be able to run down that triple digit Berlan score. As a matter of fact, they go for fifty-four runs with all out to take their record to no wins and all of four losses.

James Adderley

“A hundred and thirteen runs, thirteen more runs on the century, would you like to tell us how you got it done today playing for Berlan?”

Colin Young, Berlan Team

“It’s just having a lot of patience, just waiting until the balls come that I could hit.”

James Adderley

“Was there a weakness in the bowling that made you able to make this record?”

Colin Young

“I think initially they came out with good bowling, but they got tired, they had to change bowlers and I think we capitalised on that.”

James Adderley

“Were your runs mostly in bunches like sixes and fours, or did you actually had to run the bases?”

Colin Young

“I run the bases a lot, I made a lot of singles initially and then later on as the balls dropped a little longer, I started to hit more boundaries.”

Elston Wade, President, Belize National Cricket Assn.

“What happened, we have two team less, but we have more competitive teams this year. Some of the weaker teams decided to sit out this year and the players definitely shared themselves among the other teams. So the competition, to my mind, will be more competitive this year.”

James Adderley

“In terms of support from the community, what has 2003 bring?”

Elston Wade

“As usual, the communities look forward to cricket and they can’t wait for the start of the season, and the support as usual has been fantastic.”